Long before Tony Gwynn became Mr. Padre and Ray Kroc saved professional baseball in San Diego, the Padres thrived.

In fact, when the 2011 season mercifully ends Wednesday, the 75th anniversary of Padres baseball will also conclude.

The highlights of Padres, history, of course, are the 1984 and 1998 National League championships and the careers that carried Tony Gwynn and, eventually, Trevor Hoffman to the Hall of Fame.

But the history of Padres baseball didn’t begin with the National League granting San Diego an expansion franchise in 1969.

The story began in 1936 when Bill Lane decided to move his Hollywood Stars to San Diego, although the destination city didn’t have a ballpark. In two months, with the help of the Works Project Administration, Lane Field was constructed at the foot of Broadway and Padres history was launched.

Three-quarters of a century later, old-timers still remember the “good ol’ days” at Lane Field and Westgate Park in Mission Valley. But the Padres of Pacific Coast League lore often struggled as mightily as their modern namesakes.

The truth is the major league Padres have been around for 42 seasons while the minor league Padres only played 33 – although many great players and some notable teams represented San Diego long before 1969.

Among the first Padres was a kid who joined the team while still attending Hoover High. The original Padres of 1936 included two future Hall of Famers in Williams and Bobby Doerr, who hit .342. Other future Hall of Famers who spent parts of their minor league careers in San Diego included Tony Perez, Larry Doby and Bob Lemon.

A year later, Williams helped the Padres win their first championship. Williams hit .291 with 23 homers and 91 RBI – the home run total standing as the franchise record for a decade.

The 1937 Padres won the Shaughnessy Playoffs in a four-game sweep of Portland.

Although the Padres wouldn’t win their next PCL title until 1954, the “Bay Bomber” teams of 1948-50 are fondly remembered as some of the more exciting in Padres history, according to Padres historian Bill Swank.

In 1948, outfielder-first baseman Jack Graham was on a pace to hit 80 home runs when he was beaned on July 25. He already had 46 HRs and finished with a Padres record 48 and 136 RBI.

The following year, Max West, who hit 43 homers in 1947, hit 48 homers with 166 RBI in a 190-game season. Luke Easter was hitting .363 with 25 homers and 92 RBI in 80 games when he was called up to Cleveland along with third baseman Al Rosen.

In 1950, the Padres finished second with a 114-86 record. Graham (136 RBI) and Harry "Suitcase" Simpson (156 RBI) both hit 33 home runs.

The PCL title finally returned to San Diego in 1954, which came at a time when the Pacific Coast League was considered “the third major league.” The 1954 Padres defeated Hollywood on a pair of homers by 1947 National League MVP Bob Elliott. The decisive game at Lane Field was the first Padres game to be telecast live in San Diego.